Writing Playground

8. An Eye For An Eye

Fandom: Persona 5
Genre: humor, vague romance, fluff
Ship: akeshu (AkechixRen)

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It was a calm afternoon at Leblanc, and only one customer was left in the rustic café. Sojiro had left in order to take care of something, which left the teenage delinquent alone to watch the place. Not that he had anything else to do that evening, he still waited for further information from "Alibaba" who had them wrapped around his pinky finger.

"Please don't take offence, but how does this place manage to stay open with so few customers?", Akechi mused after he had lowered his cup. "It's not that I mind," he quickly added, "I do enjoy the quietness of Leblanc, but it would be a shame if this place were to close just because of that not enough people have discovered this place."

Ren had no idea how Sojiro managed to keep the place open either, but he was not going to ask questions. Boss had managed to keep his nose to himself about what the boy was up to every day, so the least Ren could do would be to stop pressing him for more information than necessary. So instead, Ren smiled cheekily, leaning over the counter to come closer to the detective and replied in a hushed voice, "Magic. Faye magic."

". . . What?"

"A magic bag with cash."

Akechi sighed in defeat and pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand. "You could've just told me that you didn't want to tell me. Or that you didn't know."

Ren stood up and stepped back with a sly grin, about to throw a comeback, but it was quickly wiped off his face when his foot made contact with what could only be a glass jar on the wooden floor. The color drained from his face in shock and silent dread, and it didn't take long for him to fall flat on his butt. His head hit the wall behind him, and a moan of pain escaped the boy's lips.

His eyes were shut tight and his face heated up in embarrassment, reaching up to his ears and all the way down to his collarbone. Then he heard a gasp followed by something else. A chuckle.

No, a laugh.

Or wait, it sounded more like a cackle upon closer inspection, with ugly snorts in between. The difference between this and the "pretty boy" persona was perplexing to say the least.

Ren stirred as he blinked open his eyes, the room moving from side to side before falling back into place. Akechi had stood up, and being the source of the cackling, he couldn't help but glare. "Haha, very funny."

"I... I'm sorry, Amamiya-kun, I-I-!" It looked like it took all of his self-control in order to form those words, but even then, it was not enough. It took a few minutes in order for Akechi to gain his bearings, but a smile still played on his lips. "I apologize, that must be very rude and unbecoming of me."

"You got that right, perfect detective", Ren scowled, but there was no real bite in his words. He stretched a hand up, flushing even more if that now was possible. "Now help me up."

Something in what he said seemed to have flipped a switch in the detective's head. His amused smile was gone in an instant and he was rushing to the scene to help the fallen barista. His face burned when he reached down to grab the outstretched hand, and Ren couldn't help but think that this was the perfect opportunity for payback.

"Uwah!"

With a powerful tug and a swipe of his feet, the detective fell to solid ground. What he didn't foresee, however, was that since he took up most of the floor behind the counter, there was only so much room for Akechi to land on.

Akechi fell in his lap and knocked Ren out of breath by the sheer force of the fall. His head landed on his torso and his forearm pushed on his abdomen, and Ren had a hard time to recover for more reasons than one.

The teenage idol was a blushing mess as he got up on his knees between Ren's legs and started sputtering out nonsense, eyes wide. He would've laughed or cracked a dirty joke if he didn't hear the bell above the entrance signaling the presence of another person.

"Hey, what are you kids doing there?"

Their attention shifted to the man by the door at lightning speed, and Ren couldn't help but groan internally.

To think he praised the man for sticking to his own business mere minutes ago.

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